9.11.09

Identity is dead. The 21st-century subject is an unstable fiction with no identifiable features or group affiliations. He’s a man without inherent qualities, a post-human ideal. But those who have long been hailed as Other exist in a different relation to this ideal. Unlike those traditionally self-possessed |s, these Others may find themselves split between a yearning to be contemporary and unqualified, and longing for a continued allegiance to their qualitative, albeit constructed, group identity.

It is with an awareness of this more ambiguous and refined notion of self that 'Feminaissance' approaches questions of femininity and its relation to writing. Topics include: collectivity; feminine écriture; the politics of writing; text and voice; the body as a site of contestation, insurgence and pleasure; race and writing; gender as performance; writing about other women writers; economic inequities; Hélène Cixous; monstrosity; madness; and aesthetics.

If the fact that “women do not say ‘We’” was one of the constitutive problems for 20th century feminism, the fact that women do and still clearly feel the need to say “We” is just as rich and interesting a topic for feminism today. The writings gathered here prove feminism to be alive and more relevant to all genders than ever: not just because feminist discourse remains a political necessity, but because of its artistic and intellectual pleasures. –Sianne Ngai

7.11.09

Here are a few of my snapshots of Sue, from some time ago: Sue Ford with Laurie Duggan at Micky Allan's exhibition opening at Watters Gallery, Sydney in 1978; sitting under one of her own photos at my house in Petersham in October 1982 and with Sasha Soldatow and Jeune Pritchard at the Art Gallery of NSW in October 82.

5.11.09

If you like some of the kinds of lyric poetry that I like you'll like Michele Leggott's peri poietikes / about poetry and if you don't know what I like or what kind of lyric you like why not try this kind of lyric -